Intermix Media Inc.’s ousted former Chief Executive Brad Greenspan offered on Friday to acquire a significant interest in the L.A.-based Web site operator for $13.50 a share. The proposal is meant to quell a lower offer by News Corp. and keep Intermix’s MySpace social-networking site independent.
FreeMySpace LLC, a newly formed investor group led by Greenspan, said it plans to solicit Intermix shareholders to oppose the News Corp. deal in a vote scheduled for Sept. 28. Greenspan, Intermix’s largest non-insider stockholder with a 10 percent stake, is offering a 12.5 percent premium to News Corp.’s $12 a share offer, worth $580 million. Greenspan also is asking Intermix to delay the shareholder vote.
Under the terms of Greenspan’s proposal, Intermix shareholders would be able to sell up to 50 percent of their shares to FreeMySpace for $13.50 a share. Intermix would then increase its ownership in MySpace to 100 percent and sell off its other assets. The company would be renamed MySpace.
In a statement, Intermix said it has not received the proposal described in Greenspan’s press release. If a proposal arrives, Intermix said its board “will give it due consideration.”
Greenspan said that the offer “provides shareholders with the best of all worlds: liquidity at a higher price than News Corp. is offering and the opportunity to participate in the exciting future of MySpace.com.”
Greenspan has long been a critic of News Corp.’s offer, which he said undervalues Intermix and MySpace.com. He said the Intermix board failed to obtain the maximum value for Intermix stockholders.
Greenspan was ousted as chief executive in 2003 after an accounting scandal. He has been a thorn in the company’s side ever since, alternately claiming the role of shareholder advocate and wronged former executive.
In early September, Intermix was sued by shareholders in a class-action lawsuit led by law firm Kreindler & Kreindler LLP, stating that News Corp.’s offer was too low and the company’s board of directors had failed to maximize shareholder value.
